On October 24, 2015, I am a motivational speaker for the Health Records Association of British Columbia. The convention, taking place at the Hilton Vancouver Airport Hotel, will attract over 300 healthcare information management professionals.

When it comes to reward and recognition, employees are looking for meaning, not things. The meaning behind the reward and not the reward itself is what matters. A genuine, personalized recognition will go much further then generic praise.

Personalize. Different people like to be rewarded differently. Understanding those differences can be the difference between a meaningful recognition and a mediocre one. Take the time to understand what people like, by asking them how they like to be recognized.

Rule number one is always use a microphone. Don't give the guest speaker an option. Countless times, I have seen a speaker decline a microphone because they claim they have a loud, powerful voice, only to leave the audience annoyed because they can't hear.

Because of different room set ups or noise in the adjacent room- a speakers voice can come across as muffled or words can be missed and people have to struggle to hear. Many audience members are also hearing impaired, they will miss dropped vowels or mumbled words.

Ask a guest speaker for their preference and prep them on different microphone types: